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This study investigated the factorial validity of the Contextual Achievement Motivation Scale, assessing achievement motivation in multiple settings with a sample of 493 undergraduate and graduate students. Exploratory factor analysis identified a four-factor model: School (6 items), Employment/Work (6 items), Family (5 items), Community (4 items). These factors accounted for approximately 60% of the variance and correlated in the expected directions with a criterion measure, the Adult Hope Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the identified four-factor model fit the data, ?[superscript 2](182)= 348.10, p< 0.001; ?[superscript 2]/df = 1.91, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI)= 0.92, comparison fit index (CFI)= 0.93, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) [0.058, 0.080]= 0.069, and standardized root-mean square residual (SRMR)= 0.063. In addition, the scale showed partial scalar invariance between genders. The responses are subject to bias and increased the error in reliability and validity. Implications of the research, at a macro-level, draws attention to the importance of work; and one's performance within family, school and community settings.

School counselors are in a unique position to help at-risk students. Research indicates that teaching resiliency skills and emotional intelligence is a promising venture (Bernard, 1997; Chavkin & Gonzalez, 2000; Henderson & Milstein, 2002). Seventy identified at-risk seventh and eighth grade students enrolled in the Teen Leadership Program (Flippen Group, 2001) served as the population for this study. Initial analysis of the data did not reveal a difference between treatment and control groups. However, non-parametric tests indicate that the experimental group had a significant difference in office referrals. Findings and recommendations for future research are further elaborated in this study. (Contains 1 figure.)

Executive Summary: Will recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) leave the United States if a legal challenge succeeds in ending this important program? The fate of over 600,000 current DACA recipients may depend on answers to this question in one expert report and one online survey question, which a Texas District Court found to show "a quantifiable percentage" would leave. Had the District Court in its DACA ruling not credited these sources, Texas' lawsuit could have collapsed, and DACA would persist. The issue of whether DACA recipients will leave if DACA is ended will matter as this case is litigated, most likely to be decided by the Supreme Court. Drawing on research on immigrant return, DACA recipients, survey questions, priming, and intention-behavior gap, this paper argues that this expert report and the single online survey question used by the District Court cannot support the inferences regarding the return of DACA recipients to their birth countries. Rather, relevant research points toward DACA recipients staying in the United States, even if DACA were terminated. The paper recommends offering DACA recipients and long term undocumented residents a short path to legal status and citizenship, reassessing whether these two sources can support the conclusions drawn by the District Court; and analyzing the benefits accruing from DACA to Texas and all Texans, including US citizen children of DACA recipients, in assessing the claimed injury to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern Texas houses a transition zone from semiarid conditions in the far west to some of the wettest areas of the continental United States not influenced by mountainous terrain. The region, vulnerable to drought and flooding rains, is projected to experience higher water demand with its growing population. In the coming decades, municipal consumption, including water for landscape preservation, will supplant irrigation as the largest usage category. The amount of supplemental water required to maintain plantings is dependent on evapotranspirative demand and precipitation patterns. Reference evapotranspiration can be calculated using four daily climate parameters in the FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equation. This was combined with soil moisture capacity and daily accumulated precipitation to determine historical evapotranspiration rates at 14 observation stations across the eastern region of Texas from 1973 through 2017 and allowed for the creation of a recursive algorithm that introduced supplemental water for vegetation preservation as conditions crossed thresholds of dryness. Time series data analysis showed an increasing degree of aridity, as higher temperatures have decreased relative humidity and dry periods have become more prolonged and severe under stable average annual precipitation totals. Without additional increases in rainfall, the region is expected to continue its drying trend, leading to moisture-stressed plant life and higher water demands to maintain landscapes in a well-watered state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longleaf pine is known as an unpredictable seed producer, with adequate or better seed crops occurring once every 5 years or longer. However, in the spring before seed fall, good cone crops can be predicted by visually counting green cones in the canopy, which by then are large enough to be seen, especially when binoculars of suitable power are used. During the spring of 2014, cone surveys in eastern Texas suggested that the autumn longleaf pine cone crop there could be a bumper crop. As a result, staff of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, in cooperation with Southern Region Forest Management staff, planned and conducted a longleaf pine cone collection that was implemented during the fall of 2014. Results were a great success, with more than 1,000 bushels of cones collected, producing nearly 1,000 pounds of seed (equivalent to approximately 5 million seedlings, enough to plant roughly 8,000 acres at typical planting rates). This seed supply will meet the needs of the National Forest and Grasslands in Texas for the foreseeable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that teachers, principal, and parents of the Spring Independent School District learned the lesson taught by the educator Ralph Tyler. Located of school; Description of article; Purpose of the study team; Discovery of the most important problems; Number of members who made up study team; What the activities of the study team consist of; Evaluation of team efforts; Lessons learnt from the study; References.

Our objective was to generate hypotheses for potential on-farm control strategies for Escherichia coli O157 by identifying associations between management practices and climate, and the presence of E. coli O157 in feedlot cattle. Faeces were obtained from 10,622 cattle in 711 pens on 73 feedlots between May and August 2001. Management and climate information was obtained by questionnaire and observation at the time of sampling. The prevalence of E. coli O157 was 10.2% at the sample level, 52.0% at the pen-level, and 95.9% at the feedlot-level. The factors associated with the presence of E. coli O157 in cattle faeces were the frequency of observing cats in the pens or alleys (most common when observed daily), the presence of E. coli O157 in the water tanks (positive association), the historical use of injectable mass medication (positive association), the use of antibiotics in the ration or water (negative association), the wetness of the pen, number of cattle in the pen (negative association), wind velocity (positive association), and height of the feed bunk (positive association).

Our objective was to generate hypotheses about associations between management, climate, and the presence of Escherichia coli O157 in feedlot-cattle water tanks and in feedlot-cattle feed. Water samples from 710 tanks on 73 feedlots, and feed-samples from a subset of 504 pens on 54 feedlots, in four US states were tested for E. coli O157. Management and climate factors were ascertained by survey and observation. Escherichia coli O157 were isolated from 13% of the water tanks and at least one water tank was positive on 60% of the feedlots. The factors significantly associated with E. coli O157 in water were greater percentage of cattle shedding E. coli O157 in faeces within the same pen, higher concentration of total E. coli in the water, lack of the clarity of the water, the use of fly traps, the reported frequency of rodent sightings in the pen or alley area, and the weather at the time of sampling. Escherichia coli O157 were isolated from 14.9% of the feed samples obtained from the feedbunks. Factors positively associated with E. coli O157 in feed were higher heat index at the time of sampling, the presence of cottonseed meal in the ration, and the feedlot location (state). Coliform counts in feed, presence of E. coli O157 in water tanks and faecal prevalence of E. coli O157 were not associated with the presence of E. coli O157 in feed.